States running out of vaccine
First dose appointments canceled for tens of thousands of people
NEWYORK— The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled.
Karen Stachowiak, a first-grade teacher in the Buffalo area, spent almost five hours on the state hotline and website to land an appointment for Wednesday, only to be told it was canceled. The Erie County Health Department said it scratched vaccinations for more than 8,000 people in the past few days because of inadequate supply.
The reason for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand in the U.S. was unclear, but last week the Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.
In any case, new shipments go out every week, and both the government and the drugmakers have said there are large quantities in the pipeline.
The shortages are coming as states dramatically ramp up their vaccination drives, at the federal government’s direction, to reach people 65 and older, along with certain others.
Less than half of the 36 million doses distributed to the states by the federal government have been administered so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials have said the gap could reflect recordkeeping delays as well as disarray and other failings at various levels of government in actually getting shots into arms.
In a statement, HHS said that jurisdictions actually received about a 5 percent increase in vaccine allocations this week from what they got in the past couple of weeks.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the city had to cancel 23,000 appointments for people awaiting their first dose this week. The New York Police Department suspended first-shot vaccinations for its officers.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he expects the state to exhaust its supply of vaccine within two or three days for people seeking their first dose.
“What’s clear now is we’ll be going from week to week, and you will see a constant pattern of basically running out, waiting for the next week’s allocation, and starting up again,” he said.
In a statement, Moderna said that it is on track to deliver 100 million doses by the end of the first quarter of the year and 200 million by the end of the second quarter.
Pfizer, the maker of the other vaccine used in the U.S., said it duly filled the government’s orders over the past two weeks. It said it is working around the clock to produce millions more doses each day and foresees no problems in meeting its commitment to deliver 200 million by the end of July.
In other developments:
■ Missouri’s governor says the state plans to have mass vaccination sites by the end of the month in an effort to get more protection against the coronavirus to more people. Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday that he will activate the National Guard to help with new vaccination sites in each of the nine Missouri State Highway Patrol regions.
■ Judges say Georgia’s court system could take years to dig out of a backlog of jury trials delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton told lawmakers during hearings Wednesday that it could take one to two years to catch up.
■ The Oklahoma State Department of Health said Wednesday that it is seeking volunteers to help at vaccination sites in the state. The department’s Medical Reserve Corps said Wednesday that both medical and non-medical volunteers are needed to give vaccinations, handle registration and other tasks.